Rope for the transmission of power.



J. P. TOLMAN L J. L. BIXBY, JR.

ROPE FOR THE TRANSMISSION-0F POWER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.10, 1908.

Patented N0v.8,1910.

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INVENTORJv I 'Y Mr-ffm- WITNESSES:

A TTORNE YJ JAMES P. TOLMAN, OF NEWTON," AND JOHN `LEWIS BIXBY, JR., OF ARLINGTON, MASSA-v CHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO lSAMSON CORDAGE WORKS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

ROPE FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF yIEO'iEIR..

To all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES P. ToLMAN, of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State 'of Massachusetts, and JOHN LEWIS BIXBY, Jr., of Arlington, in the county and State aforesaid, both citizens of the Unitedl States, have invented-a new and useful Im- )roveinent in Ropes for the Transmission of lowcr, of which the following is a. specificittion. Y

Power transmission ropes are designed for running over grooved` pulleys or sheaves and are usually made from fibrous strands, from metallic wire strands, or from' a combination of the two. When fibrous strands only are used the ropes quickly stretch and require shortening and resplicing, or if this is Vto be avoided, one or more take-up pulleysvin traveling carriages must be installed -in each system to care for the. slack rope.;:;;;'l`he fibrous ropes are so easily extensibleunderloadthat they cannot be used for the,l transmission of as much power as"l their'holding surface in the grooves would permlt. On the other hand, w1re ropes Wlnle. offering lthe advantage of comparaf tive inextensibility under considerable loads',

do not afford a ygood holding surface inthe A grooves, and are more difcult to splice.

Combination ropes comprising a union of fibrous and metallic wire strands, as heretofore made, have -had the indivldual wire strands wound or surrounded by the fibrous strands. When a strain is put upon such a rope the amount of fiber in the center of the rope is sufiicient to permit stretching, and

the amount of fiber outside `of the wires is,

insufficient to prevent their cutting through and coming into contact with the sheaves, so that they are broken and the rope becomes worthless. Combination ropes have also been made in which a wire core has been vare embedded and which hasbeen vulcan-` ized to form a tough bondto hold the core Specicationof Letters Patent. Applicationled August 10, 1908. Serial No. 447,725.

Patented Nov. 8, 19M).

and covering from relative movement. The wire strands or wires are placed near the axial line of the rope, thus obtainingpractical inextensibility. The fibrous strands Vwould cause them.V Between the two layers 1s a layer of cementitious material referably an india rubber compound, whic layer of cementitious material penetrates between the wires and takes their form upon its inner side and penetrates into the fibrous covering upon. its outer side, and is vuleanized forming a matrix which by its penetration into the exposed surfaces within it and about it clings to both, and by its toughness holds the outer layer and the core together so that neither can move longitudinally with relation to the other, thus making the rope asa whole to all intents and purposes a single entity instead of a series of layers,.which entity has those features reuired in a rope of this class and which so aras we have been able to determine have l-never before been reached.

Our invention may be varied in character by serving the wire rope with a spiral winding of twine with which as well as with the pther parts of the rope the matrix .interocks.

Our invention is` equally applicable lwhether the fibrous exterior is braided or Our invention will be understood by reference to the drawings in which- Figure 1' shows a rope embodying our invention, a portion being in section. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing a slight modification. Fig. 3 shows a portion of such a rope as is shown in Fig. 1 from which a portion of the fibrous covering has been removed to expose the cementitious layer, a portion of the cementitious layer being also removed to disclose the core. A'li`ig 4 is a piece of the cementitious layer which has been. removed after vulcanizing and opened out to disclose the impression which the 'core has made upon it.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 3, our invention comprises a core as at W, a cementitious non-stretehable meta vIn Figs. 1, 2 and 3 the fibrous exterior. R

la er G and a fibrous exterior R. The core is `preferably constructed lof a center C which is fibrous, which may be made as shown in Fi 1 of two fibrous strands laid together, an around this center is laid a number of strands S in the drawings six are' shown), each stran consisting of a plurality of metallic wires 19 laid in the 01'-- dinarv way. This is aAconvenient way of making acore though any other form of lic core may be used.

comprises a number of strands (in the drawing 28 strands are shown), which are braided together. We prefer that the exterior should be braided, but this is not essential. The important feature. of this rope, however, lies in the cementitious layer marked G in the drawing, which is preferably of india rubber india rubber compound or the like w ich isap lied tov the core before the a ding of t e fibrousV exterior in such quantit as is sufficient not only to form of' Yitse f a layer between the core and the exterior covering but during the appli-v cation of the exterior covering b the braiding machine or otherwise to e squeezed into an interlocking relation with both the core andthe coveras shown especially in Figs. 3 and 4, and to serve after vulcanization as' a bond between the core and the fibrous exterior, thus preventing the travel` out toughness this bonding layer would be worthless, nor should it allow any movement of the fibrousv exterior with relation to the core.

We have shown in Fig. 2 a construction in which in addition to the three elements,

the core, the matrix and the-fibrous exterior,`

there is wound upon the core a twine T2 betweenthe spirals of which the matrix acuires contact with the core and also with t e -iibrous exterior so that it performs the A same function in this case as in the construction shown in Fi 1, but an additional construction is added -between the core and the fibrous exterior to lprevent the travel of the one with relation to the other.

It will be noted that a rope constructed according to our invention has features not found in any prior rope so far as we are aware in ythat it has the 'non-stretchable qualit due to its wire core combined with the clinging quality due to the fibrous extev rior which enables the rope to take hold of the sheave over which it runs without slipping. The cement or cementitious material which lies between the two forms a tough bonding matrix, by which we mean that in quantity it is suliicient to form of itself a tough layer between the core and the librons exterior, which is squeezed into interlocking relation with both thc core and the librous exterior during the process of applying thel exterior to the core. When this process of applying the fibrous 4exterior is finished the rope is then submitted to sufficientA heat to sure the proper vulcanization of the cenieiititious .compound or material which changes its character from a penetrating pasty mass without strength to a tough matrix having sufficient stren rth to prevent the longitudinal movement of the core and exterior of the rope with relation to each other.

In using' the teri cement or cemented in this specification we mean to iniply the making of a tough vulcanized matrix of cementitious material and not thc mere stickin together of the core and covering as mig t result in causing the adhesion of tliefcore to the outer surface at different points along theirv length. As will be seen from Figs. 3 and 4 the character of the cementitious material used .by us is such that it takes hold upon both the core and the exterior ,in such a way that there are ridges upon the outer and inner surfaces of the cement matrix. This embedding of the cement into the two different materials forms after Vulcanization a union that could not be accomplished merely by adhesion as the adhesive efi'ect would soon become ruptured by the bending of the rope while in use and hence the rope, would soon become worthless because of its lack of adhesion and the con-v se uent crawling or traveling of the stretch able fibrous exterior upon the core.

We do not mean to limit ourselves in any Way to the details of construction of the core so long as it is non-stretchable, ner to the construction of the exterior so long as it is fibrous and braided or otherwise applied in any convenient wayand with any convenient number of strands, to the cemeiititious layer which being afterward vulcanized grips it and holds it to the coi'e, our invention coniprising a transmission yrope containing a wire core and a fibrous exterior of one or more layers where the core and exterior are maintained in anti-creeping relation to eacli other by means of vulcanized cementitious material having -a thickness and character which enables it to interlock on both its inner surface with the outer surface of the core and on its outer surface with the inner surface of the fibrous covering and is vulcanized `or otherwise toughened after the rope is made up so as to bond the core with v974,843 .er y

. less for reasons above given, and if embedded in a soft rubber intermediate layer the rope is equally worthless for transmitting purposes as such `a layer allows a movement of the exterior layer or core which soon loosens the cover from the core and the rope becomes Worthless. In our rope the bonding 4of the outer layer and core binds' the tWo together so as to make a structure in which While each layer performs its own part in the use of the rope, the rope itself is practically a single entity of what might be called homogeneous character. What We claim as our invention is: A rope for the transmission of power comprising a central non-stretchable core containing metallic strands, a matrix of cementitious material surrounding said core, and an exterior covering of fibrous strands, said :matrix penetratin the interstices of both the central core an( the fibrous exterior and being vulcanized to forni a tough bond between them uniting the two to prevent their longitudinal movement with relation to each other.

JAMES I. TOLMAN. JOHN LEWIS l'lXlY, Jn.

W'itnesses;

ROYAL G. VVnrrnvG, E'runL L. CHANDLER. 

